Fetal Heart Rate

Expectant Parents Warned Over Use of Fetal Heart Rate Monitors

September 16, 2010

Young expectant parents are being advised by many medical professionals not to use hand-held home use fetal heart rate monitors (an instrument better known as the Doppler) in order to listen to the baby’s heartbeat over (justified) fears that these sophisticated medical instruments can lead to delays in seeking medical help for reduced fetal movements (RFM) which can represent a warning sign that the unborn child is small for gestation or unwell. Therefore, expectant mothers who report reduced fetal movements have to be investigated thoroughly.

In one article in the British Medical Journal, Dr Thomas Aust (MD Obstetrician/Gynecologist) and his colleague physicians from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral describe the case of a young twenty seven year old woman who presented to their labor ward thirty two weeks into her first pregnancy with reduced fetal movements.

She had first noted a reduction in the unborn child’s activity 2 days earlier, however, had used her own home use fetal Doppler instrument to listen to her unborn child’s heart beating and reassured herself that all was okay.

Further fetal heart rate monitoring by the prenatal care team wasn’t reassuring. So, the child was delivered by C-section later that night. The newborn remained on the special care newborn room for two months and is making steady progress.

Fetal Doppler instrument assesses the presence of an unborn child’s heart beating only at that moment and it’s used by obstetricians as well as trained midwives in order to check for viability or for intermittent monitoring throughout the labor, say the authors. In inexperienced hands it’s much more likely that blood flow through the placenta or the pregnant woman’s main blood vessels will be heard.

Following this specific case, they searched the Web and found that a hand-held home use Doppler instrument could be rented for $15 per one month or bought for as little as $40 to $70. Even though the companies offering sales state that the instrument isn’t intended to replace advised prenatal diagnosis, manufacturers make claims like: “Expectant parents will be able to locate and listen to the heart beating with amazing clarity.”

It’s quite hard to say whether self monitoring altered the outcome in this particular instance, explain the authors. On the other hand, they now have posters in their antenatal areas advising that expectant parents don’t use these instruments.

Filed under: Monitor

Tags: Fetal Heart Rate, Fetal Heart Rate Monitor